


All Things Equal

by Kizmet



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Civil War Team Iron Man, Gen, Not Clint Friendly, Not Steve Friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-10-20 08:02:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17618591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kizmet/pseuds/Kizmet
Summary: When Steve says, “Rumlow said "Bucky" and… all of a sudden I was a 16-year-old kid again, in Brooklyn.  And people died. It's on me,” it’s presented as a human and understandable thing that shouldn’t be held against him even though his emotional reaction cost eleven Wakandans and an unspecified number of others their lives.What would it look like if other characters were extended the same latitude for their emotional reactions?





	1. ... And I was a Kid Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this one's barely long enough to bother with posting.
> 
> As always, the IM1 timeline applies: Tony graduated from MIT at 17 THEN Howard and Maria died. Stane took over as CEO of SI UNTIL Tony took over at 21. In other words Tony is somewhere between 17 and 20 when his parents die, more likely on the younger end of the scale.

“When I saw your buddy beat in my father’s face until it was unrecognizable, until the shard of bone driven into his brain took his life. When I saw him shove my father's body back into the car next to my terrified, trapped and helpless mother before he causally strangled the life from her… Well, I was just a kid, home from school for Christmas Break, again. 

“I was back in that night. Standing at the door while two police officers told me that I was never going to hear my mother play piano or sing again. I was never going to be able to hug her or tell her I loved her again. That the father I’d spent my whole life desperately trying to make proud, to be good enough for… It was never going to happen. I would never earn his approval, I’d never even see him again because after what your buddy did to him it was a closed casket funeral. The last words I'd ever speak to him would have been said in anger.

“I watched your buddy’s hands brutally take my parents’ lives. And I was just a kid again and I lashed out… But you don’t care about that do you? Any more than the families of those who died at Lagos care about your desperation to have your friend, your last connection to your past, safe at your side again. 

“You don’t respect their pain. You don’t respect mine. Why do you expect that we should respect yours?”


	2. I Adore You But…

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Bruce refuses to turn green during the Battle of Novi Grad, Natasha responds by kissing him and saying “I adore you. But I need the other guy” and shoving him off a cliff. What if the same level of ‘persuasion’ was used on other characters who show reluctance to use their abilities to fight the ‘good’ fight?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Initially I thought about it from the perspective of “What if Natasha tried to persuade Bruce that the Hulk does more good than harm ala Steve’s pep talk to Wanda after Lagos. But while I think it would be more justified in Bruce's case the scenario doesn’t really work for me because Tony, Natasha and Thor at Natasha’s urging all try, at various points between Avengers and AoU, in their own way, to convince Bruce that the Hulk is a force for good… It just doesn’t take. 
> 
> So I went with the alternate scenario: What if _Wanda_ isn’t willing to go out and fight when Clint tells her to.

**Battle of Novi Grad**

Ultron’s army of robots exploded onto the streets of Novi Grad and Wanda froze.

“Go, go, move!” Clint shouted as he dragged her out of the line of fire and into a deserted building.

“How could I let this happen?” Wanda cried, the enormity of what she’d done in her quest for revenge staring her in the face.

“Hey, hey, you okay?” Clint asked.

“This is all my fault,” Wanda cried. “I should have let Pietro kill Stark but I wanted him to self-destruct. And I went to Ultron, he never would have gotten this far without my help. This is my fault.”

“Hey, look at me,” Clint replied. “It's your fault, it's everyone's fault, who cares. The city is flying. Okay, look, the city is flying, we're fighting an army of robots, and I have a bow and arrow. None of this makes sense. But I'm going back out there because it's my job. Okay? And I can't do my job and babysit. It doesn't matter what you did or what you were. You’re here, you have the power to help us stop this. So I’m gonna give you five seconds to get your head in the game then I’m gonna toss you out that door and you’re going to do everything you can help us stop this or everyone’s going to die. You get that right? We either stop Ultron here or everyone dies.”

“Five… Four…” He grabbed Wanda’s arm and started dragging her towards the open door. “Three… Two... One… Go!”

* * *

 

**Leaving the Compound**

Wanda and Vision stood at one of the Compound windows staring out into the night when an explosion went off. “What is it?” Wanda asked turning to Vision fearfully as she thought of the images from the news.

“Stay here, please,” Vision requested before going to check on the disturbance.

Shortly after he left Wanda sensed another presence in the Compound, believing it was the angry protesters come to burn her for real instead of in effigy Wanda compelled a knife across the room.

She was almost too late in recognizing Clint. “Guess I shoulda knocked,” he said as he stared at the knife floating inches from his face.

“Oh my god! What are you doing here?” Wanda exclaimed.

“Disappointing my kids,” Clint replied. He shot arrows to both sides of the room, setting a trap for Vision. “I'm supposed to go water skiing. Cap needs our help. Come on,” he said as he started for the door, expecting Wanda to follow.

Wanda shook her head. “I've caused enough problems,” she said, not moving from where she stood.

Clint frowned and turned back from the door. “Look Wanda, you’re a cute kid. I practically see you as a daughter. But the fact of the matter is: You joined HYDRA. You went to work for Ultron. And Johannesburg, that’s all on you. If not for Cap standing up for you, the Avengers covering for you, you’d be rotting in a jail cell today. Now Cap needs you, so you’re going to get off your ass and start making it worth our trouble... Or do you want to stay here and see if Stark’s got the means and motivation to keep you from being deported when the world finds out that Lagos is the least of your sins?”


	3. What Kind of Monster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What does it say about Steve Rogers that he looks at Wanda and Pietro Maximoff volunteering to be experimented by HYDRA and sees... Himself?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not entirely sure this one really fits here since it’s less what if everyone on the Avengers were treated the same and more examining Steve more carefully to as to why he sees himself in Wanda. Also I’ve hit it before in “What If” but it came up recently, it’s stuck in my head and it deserves more poking at (because it’s really, really a terrible line).

“File says they volunteered for Strucker's experiments,” Maria Hill reported. Then she shook her head, “It's nuts.”

Steve gave Hill a disapproving look, “Right. What kind of monster would let a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country?”

Maria Hill blinked at him in utter disbelief, “A German scientist, THAT's how you see both a modern day Mengele like List and Abraham Erskine?”

“No!” Steve exclaimed. “I didn’t say that. I just meant that these Maximoff twins just wanted to protect their country, like I did. And HYDRA took advantage of that.”

“Is that what the SSR did to you?” Maria asked frowning. “Took advantage of you? Did anyone actually sit you down and explain what you were signing up for with Project Rebirth?”

“I knew it was dangerous, I knew it would change me,” Steve assured her. “I was just so sick of being looked at like I was worthless. My whole life: Too many sick days to graduate. Couldn’t help Mama out, ‘cause folks’d take one look at me and decide I wasn’t up to the job, didn’t make a damn bit of difference what the job was. Bucky offering to take care of me like I was some helpless kid after my mom died; he might have said he knew I could take care of myself but he didn’t believe it. You know what he told me when I was trying to enlist? That the only thing worse than me getting arrested for lying about all the times I’d tried before would be if someone actually took me. My best friend and even he didn’t believe in me. That 4F stamp was just making it official ‘Steve Rogers is useless’. What other choice did I have? No one else had ever even given me a chance.” Steve nodded firmly, reaching a satisfactory conclusion with himself. “List isn’t anything like Dr. Erskine, except for being the only one to offer those kids a chance. How could they not take it?”

Maria’s eyebrows climbed. “Are you saying we just got lucky that you walked into Erskine’s recruitment center instead of a HYDRA recruitment center? That you would have jumped at anyone who gave you a chance, it wouldn’t have mattered who?”

Steve’s eyes widened in an almost panicked expression. “I would never! Nothing could have made me work with HYDRA or anyone on the Axis side! I hate bullies.”

“For the moment, I’m just going to skip past the rat-hole where you apparently think World War II boils down to standing up to bullies,” Maria said. “Because I literally can’t wrap my head around what you just said, it just doesn’t make any sense. So skipping past that. If HYDRA or just anyone had came up and offered you a chance, even though you were desperate, you would have examined the offer rationally, realized that they weren’t on the up and up and turned them into the authorities or at the least turned them down?” 

“Yes, of course!” Steve said with a fever that made Maria certain he was lying through his teeth. 

“The Maximoffs didn’t,” she said. “The best case scenario is that they were ignorant of HYDRA’s real objectives, which I shouldn’t have to tell you, are NOT protection. The worst case is the twins just didn’t give a damn what HYDRA was up to as long as HYDRA got them closer to _their_ goal.” Maria paused significantly. “Captain Rogers, how do you KNOW the twins want to protect their country? Have you ever spoken to either of them?”

“Well no, but-”

“Did you even know they existed before they attacked your team… Three hours ago now?”

“No.”

“So you don’t know anything more about these two than what I just told you? That they’re twins who were orphaned at ten when a shell collapsed their apartment building and that they volunteered for HYDRA? They could have had any number of reasons for joining HYDRA. Maybe they want revenge on whichever faction dropped the bomb on their home-

“Before you ask: No, I don’t have that information. Based on the timeframe I could give you the three factions that were active then but the Maximoff apartment building was of no particular strategic value to anyone, odds are the bomb was a misfire, bad guidance system, bad data...” Maria shrugged. “There was even NATO intervention at the time, rumors of a genocide being committed by one of the groups. NATO could have been the ones to screw up and put a bomb in the wrong place. We just don’t know.”

“They were trying to stop the violence,” Steve insisted.

“By joining a notorious terrorist group?”

“HYDRA fooled S.H.I.E.L.D.” Steve pointed out.

“We didn’t have anyone with the power to look into people’s heads,” Maria replied defensively. “This Wanda Maximoff does. Even if she didn’t know what she was signing up before the experiments, she knows now. And she and her brother haven't tried to get out.”

“They're scared,” Steve insisted. 

“They were so eager to kill you guys that they went after you without orders!” Maria exclaimed. “We’ve got comm logs of Strucker and List arguing about whether or not to send the twins against you which ended when they took matters into their own hands and nearly killed Clint. From what’s on those logs my guess would be that HYDRA recruited those two not by promising stability in Sokovia but by offering them the chance to kill the Avengers. After all List says: ‘It's what they signed up for’.” 

Maria glared at Steve, “…But what do I know? I only studied all the information we have on the twins. Trained for years in analyzing that sort of data. How can I compete with your gut instinct based on seeing them for… What? Five seconds?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Steve Rogers: The two enhanced?  
> Maria Hill: Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Twins. Orphaned at ten when a shell collapsed their apartment building. Sokovia's had a rough history. It's nowhere special but it's on the way to everywhere special.  
> Steve Rogers: Their abilities?  
> Maria Hill: He's got increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis. Her thing is neural electric interfacing, telekinesis, mental manipulation.  
> [Steve looks at her funny]  
> Maria Hill: [rephrasing the statement so he can understand] He's fast and she's weird.  
> Steve Rogers: Well, they're going to show up again.  
> Maria Hill: Agreed. File says they volunteered for Strucker's experiments. It's nuts.  
> Steve Rogers: Right. What kind of monster would let a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country?  
> Maria Hill: We're not at war, Captain.  
> Steve Rogers: They are.


	4. Zero-Accountability System

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Tony held the Avengers to the same standard he holds the US Military-Industrial Complex to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “I saw young Americans killed… by the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them. And I saw that I had become part of a system that is comfortable with zero-accountability. 
> 
> "What happened over there? I had my eyes opened. I came to realize that I have more to offer this world than just making things that blow up. And that is why, effective immediately, I'm shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark International… Until such a time as I can decide what the future of this company will be. What direction it should take. The one I'm comfortable with and is consistent with the highest good of this country and the world.” - IM1

Tony Stark stepped up to the podium on the steps of Stark Industries’ headquarters in New York. “So,” he began. “Earth’s heroes set aside the metric shit-ton of issues between them to pull together once once more in order to defeat Thanos and revive half of all life in the Universe. Now we’re all back and everyone wants to know what the Avengers are going to look like going forward… Or that’s what the good folks manning SI’s front desks keep telling me you’ve been harassing them about… So here I am, to satisfy your boundless curiosity.”

There was a wave of gentle laughter from the assembled journalists.

Tony’s expression turned serious. “To answer that I feel like I need to go back to the beginning, my beginning. When I stood in front of you all, sand from my extended stay in Afghanistan still in my shoes, and I told you that I was no longer comfortable being part of a zero-accountability system. I can see how you might have come to doubt that statement, given the company I’ve been keeping lately…

“In 2014 it came out that S.H.I.E.L.D. had been infiltrated by HYDRA. That, since its inception, an organization birthed of a desire to fight the likes of HYDRA had been _used_ to forward HYDRA’s agenda. The founders of S.H.I.E.L.D., my father Howard Stark, Peggy Carter and Colonel Chester Phillips couldn’t be held accountable for allowing this to happen. My father and Colonel Phillips were both decades dead and Peggy Carter was in the last stages of Alzheimer’s. Peggy’s successor, the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. at that time, Nicholas J. Fury was also presumed dead and thus also not held accountable. So the buck kept passing… Down to Fury’s surviving right hand Agent Maria Hill. SI and yours truly provided lawyers to argue that, due to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s extremely hierarchical, need-to-know culture, it was impossible for Agent Hill much less those under her to realize that they were being given bad orders. - No one, or at least no one in reach, was at fault or could be held accountable.

“In the process of bringing HYDRA’s infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D. to light Director Nicholas J. Fury, Agent Natasha Romanoff and Captain Steven Grant Rogers found it necessary to indiscriminately dump all of SHIELD’s data online and drop three helicarriers in the Potomac. As a result of their actions hundreds died; falling debris from the helicarriers, good agents in the field when their cover was blown, individuals in the S.H.I.E.L.D. equivalent of Witness Protection exposed… Again, Fury was pretending to be dead so no charges were brought against him. Steve Rogers opted not to show up when subpoenaed and Natasha Romanoff told Congress that they wouldn’t arrest her because the world needed her... And Congress accepted that. - The investigation into the incident was called off. No one took ownership of making sure that this couldn’t happen again.

“Lagos-”

“What about Ultron?” one of the reporters shouted.

“I’m talking about zero accountability systems,” Tony said sharply. “There was an inquest into Ultron, that fact doesn’t change just because you don’t like what was decided: I was cleared of any criminal responsibility in Ultron’s creation but chose not to contest the majority of the civil suits and am currently paying millions of dollars to help the survivors of Novi Grad start over. Which you all know. Just because you’d rather see me run out of town on a rail… But let’s talk about the differences between Ultron and Lagos. Starting with I showed up for inquest into the former. The persons of interest in the later preemptively decided that they would be treated unfairly. Rather than allowing themselves to be held accountable they became fugitives… Until a new incident with sufficient loss of life to make the two dozen dead in Lagos seem unimportant -to everyone not personally involved- occurred.

“And while we’re talking about Ultron, let’s not forget Johannesburg.

“Oh sure, you all blamed the Hulk for going on a rampage. You blamed Bruce Banner for not having more control. You blamed me for not being able to stop my teammate before so much collateral damage had been done… among other things. But afterwards Bruce was gone and the Maria Stark Foundation was already paying for damages so why rock the boat by doing anything radical... Like ask why.

“Why did the Hulk go berserk right then?

“I’ve heard the speculation,” Tony looked directly at the reporter who’d interrupted before, daring him to do it again. “That Banner lost it upon discovering that I’d been responsible for Ultron’s creation. Don’t bother repeating it now, you’re barking up the wrong tree. Dr. Banner was aware of and involved in my research into creating a planetary defense system to defend us in the event of another incident like the Chitauri Invasion of 2012 or, I don’t know, _Thanos_ , from the beginning. As he was the only other scientist among the Avengers, I turned to him for peer review before starting the series of investigations into the Scepter that ultimately triggered the Ultron event. You want video evidence that he days before Johannesburg? I’ve got it.”

“So why didn’t I come forward? My _teammates_ persuaded me not to: _‘She’s been through so much already.’ ‘She’s changed, she deserves a second chance,’_ coupled with heavy, abet unspoken implication that, given my history, I couldn’t begrudge anyone, particularly not someone who lost her parents to an SI missile, a second chance. _‘It’s only money, it’s not like you can’t afford it.’ ‘If you come forward it’ll only look like you’re trying to shift the blame, Tony,’_ ...I took that last as fair warning that none of my teammates would back me up if I ignored their suggestion to let the matter drop. After all the public wasn’t asking why the Hulk went berserk, why reopen a can of worms? No one was interest in hunting Bruce down to hold him accountable… For obvious reasons. Johannesburg seemed happy enough to take my money without actually, legally holding me accountable. And no one knew to hold Wanda Maximoff accountable.

“Once again, no one was really held accountable for what happened, for the loss of life caused by members of the Avengers. But when I got out of the arms business I told you that I could no longer be part of a system that was comfortable with zero-accountability. So what is a zero-accountability system?

“Not so long ago someone told me: _‘Tony, you've come up with some pretty impressive inventions. War isn't one of them.’_ And it’s true, I am not single-handedly responsible for the fact that war exists, no one is. But that’s where a zero-accountability system generally starts: The problem’s just too big, too entrenched. Everyone’s a fault, so by some weird alchemy it all cancels out and no one it is at fault. No tries to fix it because it’s everyone’s/no one’s fault. War exists that’s a fact. People are going to fight wars with weapons and everybody wants their side to be armed with the better ones- For all its intrinsic value, the cloth of righteousness doesn’t stop bullets- It’s just the way it is.” Tony sighed deeply. “It’s the truth but too much acceptance of that truth has made us stop trying. Taught us to turn a blind eye to what we all know is wrong because we’ve all decided that there’s nothing better than the status quo before we even start looking.

“In 2008, I told you I couldn’t be a part of that sort of system anymore. That I had to own that, even it wasn’t all my fault, I was part of the problem and I needed to do what I could to own, to fix what I could… Even if it was impossible for one man to fix it all. And first off, before all else, I needed to stop contributing to what was wrong. But I never signed up to be the dumping ground for all the world’s ills or even for all of the Avengers’.

“The Hulk did not go berserk because I ticked Bruce Banner off. He did not go berserk because Bruce was irresponsible or negligent. It wasn’t even because the Hulk is inherently dangerous to have around. The Hulk went berserk because he was attacked. Not an accident. Not a mistake. A deliberate, malicious attack on Dr. Banner’s mind by a woman who hated me so much that she didn’t care about who got hurt in the process of getting at me.

“I’m told she had a change of heart. That she felt bad when her mistake in Lagos caused the deaths of twenty-four people… Not bad enough to hang around and take ownership of that mistake when she had the option of dumping a parking garage worth of cars on me instead- or running away and hiding though. Accountability is not feeling bad for five minutes then going on about your business. It’s not hiding your mistakes because someone… um… more deserving of the bad karma... is paying for them.

“That’s why the Sokovia Accords came about. Because the world looked at the Avengers and others like them and saw too little accountability. They saw that there was always was and always would be some reason to let the mistakes slide. Because we are too few and the world needs what we can do. Because, for the most part, we are trying to do the right thing. But trying isn’t always enough, good intentions don’t always lead to good outcomes and having mistakes swept aside because there are always other considerations just encourages the development of a new zero-accountability system where a small subset of people are considered too important to be called to task for their mistakes or made to own fixing them.

“In the face of a threat like Thanos everything else had to be put aside. The Accords weren’t important when there was a maniac out there hell bent on cutting the Universe’s population in half. But now he’s gone and a lot of the people without whom that wouldn’t be true want nothing to do with the Accords or accountability. They want the world to agree that they can oversee themselves, that they can determine for themselves when their mistakes were unavoidable. That the safest hands are their own and that the people who suffer when they screw up are not qualified to judge them.

“It may seem petty to bring it up now, when half the life in the Universe wouldn’t be here without the help they freely offered… But if it’s not brought up now, it will be brought up the next time weight of lives lost to a mistake isn’t balanced by the gratitude you feel right now. It will be brought up when you look at the casualties, the collateral damage and say: _‘It didn’t have to happen.’_ But by then you’ll have taught the lesson that all they have to do is lay low and it will blow over with the next catastrophe. We’ll have institutionalized another system of not holding anyone accountable and not making substantial effort to become better.

“You came here today to hear what the Avengers would look like going forward. All I can really say is that Iron Man will not be a part of the Avengers until there is a system of accountability in place. Until then I am in talks with the UN and the US government to put in place a system by which those who have jurisdiction can request Iron Man’s assistance and to review my actions afterwards, to establish professional standards that I should be held accountable to. This is happening at my request.

“As for the Avengers. In the event of another crisis of sufficient magnitude I am willing to work with them, as we worked together against Thanos. But apart from that, if they want to go back to hunting down HYDRA agents and other terrorists, trampling all over the jurisdiction of the JCTC and local law-enforcement. Well, if that is the case, they need to understand the same thing I wanted the US government to understand in 2008: As long as they continue to be part of a zero accountability system I will not be a part of it. That means I will not supply them with weapons, or in the Avengers’ case, as they have much less accountability that the US government ever did, with any other equipment. I will not house or fund the Avengers. I will not smooth things over for them politically when mistakes happen- And they will happen. We’re all human here,” Tony shrugged, “Or close enough. And to err is human.

“They can complain I’m being unfair, egotistical, a spoiled brat who won’t share his toys… Whatever. But as Steve Rogers once told me: All anyone can do is what they believe is right. Or in this case, not do. I won’t fight with the Avengers again, not even if the I’m asked to. It’s too destructive and I’m too fucking close to the problem to be objective. But I will not enable them to do something that I firmly and fully believe to be wrong.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, Tony takes the time to explain how the Avengers are a Zero-Accountability system rather than just assuming that everyone agrees with his view of the system which isn’t treating the two situations equally. But still the general intent was to have Tony treat the Avengers like his did the US Military-Industrial Complex: The Avengers are no longer an organization that Tony is comfortable with or that he feels serves the highest good of the country or the world and he is removing himself from it, publicially and decisively.


End file.
